Lucy Beaumont goes To Hull And Back

Lucy Beaumont’s Radio 4 sitcom, To Hull And Back, has been given the green-light for a full series.

The Hull-born comedian, who won the BBC New Comedy Award in 2012 and was nominated for Best Newcomer at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, stars in the sitcom as Sophie, an aspiring actor from Hull who struggles to make a living from doing car boot sales with her mother.

The series also stars Maureen Lipman, who plays her mother Sheila, and Red Dwarf star and stand-up Norman Lovett.

Beaumont said: “I’ve looked up to Maureen from being a child, knowing she was from Hull and was a legend and had incredible comedic timing, I wrote the part of the mother for her knowing she was only person who knew this kind of woman, where she was from and could do that posh East Yorkshire/Hull accent.

“When I sent her the first draft for the pilot she wrote back, ‘I’ll do it on an improved version.’ I stayed up for two nights after that. It’s really a labour of love, every gag I write I think ‘I hope Maureen finds this funny.’ It makes you write better because I know what she can do.”

Click to read our review of the To Hull And Back pilot.

Producer Carl Cooper said: “I absolutely loved making the pilot for this and I’m so excited that we’re going to get to explore these character more with a series.

“I first come across Lucy when I was listening to entries for the BBC New Comedy Awards. I listened to about 400 of them and Lucy’s one sounded like it had been recorded under water. You could only just make out what she was saying. But you could still tell that she was really funny.

“Seeing the journey from her sending that recording in to watching her on stage with Maureen Lipman, getting a massive ovation from the audience almost made me cry.”

To Hull And Back will air on Radio 4 next year.